Taking the Sunset Drive from Satara on the S100 one evening last month, we had a wonderful sighting of lions. First we saw a large maned lion walking towards us in the road, his distended stomach swinging from side to side. It appeared that he had come from a kill. He began scratching in the grass at the roadside, marking his territory. Then he squatted on his haunches, opened his huge jaws and gave us a magnificent performance of roaring, which rattled the truck and astonished a party of tourists from Germany who were with us. Then he walked on past and a second maned lion came out of the bush, stopped right next to the truck and, he too, began roaring. He had hardly completed the whole marking performance when a third appeared in the road and roared louder than the first two, which by now had loped off into the bush. Lion number three then took up station in front of us, lit by the headlights of the truck, and lay on his back with his feet in the air.As someone remarked,: "That's what being a lion in the Kruger Park is all about." After a while this lion joined his companions in the bush.It was explained to us that these three lions, possibly brothers, were a coalition who shared the territory. On a drive on the S100 earlier that afternoon, not far from a waterhole near the T-junction at the Nwanetsi end of the road, we came across a party of six lionesses and young lions resting and drinking. It seemed that they had also fed, possibly at the same kill.

Hello to everyone! After reading all the threads on what is being said of the S100, i thought that maybe we can all post our photo's of sightings on the S100 and in that way make a dedication to a road that in the past have contributed to memorable memories and may still do so in the future! (and if you've been treated bad, i'm sorry to remind you )

The above photo was my first on the S100 and was taken during April 2006.

(i hope that i didn't post in the wrong thread and if i did please forgive me )

Sorry Bert but isn't this the camps and road thread?
OR do you mean the posting of photo's and therefor in the wrong thread?
Maybe a moderator can lead the way for me to the right place - as you can see i'm still a beginner to the forum and i'm feeling quite now!!

LEt me see now ....
Was up at satara last week with my brother for 3 nights ,
we did the s100 twice - once up it , and once back down .

The first time was coming back to satara , and we saw 1 humble leopard in the middle of the day , a few ellies , plus all the usuals .

The second time we were first car up the road , as most of the camp was still fast asleep at 4:30 , and sunrise was only at 5:30 .
Eagle owl in the road at the start of the drive .
How abouts a male lion and 6 females to kick off with half way up the road .
Then a palid harrier landed right there while watching the lions .
Had this lot to ourselves for about 20 mins before another car arrived .
The lions moved of , right passed our vehicle and a pack of 4 hyena went to sniff and inspect the lions ex lay up spot .

Further up the road , we pulled in at a sighting with some lion cubsx7 and there nursemaid .
They were fairly close as can be seen in this "evidence" pic .

Id rather share a lion sighting with a couple of other vehicles , than having "zip" to share with myself further north thx .

Not to say I don't like the north , but when I go there I dont go for cats , its for other reasons.

Yes we were very lucky, we saw 9 lions on this road on 18th June eating a giraffe. The next day on morning we saw a serval walking on the same road and all the lions (2 male, female et junvenile) were on the same place eating the giraffe, with juvenile playing with each other and the female, and the day after the lions were not there but many vulture and hyena fighting for the dead giraffe.

But I think that it was 2 lucky day for a swiss citizen, I take many picture but I send only the best on the "public gallery"

Here are some of WTM's cardboard cut outs to be seen on the S100. These are the remote controlled units that moves around. The specific models in the photos are programmed to act as a pride of 12 lions crossing the road. Seen on 27 September 2007 at 09:52

There is at least 6 lionesses in this photo. There were 10 lionesses and 2 males

One of the males. From here he turned towards us and past the left hand side of the car within inches. Humbling to sit in a Toyota Coralla which has a higher seat position than most sedans and look this guy in the eye.

This is one of those "If only" photos. Every time I look at it I tell myself "If only he would've looked at the camera"

"The measure of life is not its duration but its donation." - Peter Marshall

Snoobab wrote:francoisd did you have a yellow ribbon on your car at that time. I was there to watching them walk right across the road.

No yellow ribbon. We were in a silverish Toyota Corolla.We approached from the Gudzani dam side and a white double cab from Satara side. They already saw the lionesses walking through the grass before us as our approaching view was blocked by trees. The lionesses crossed the road and walked down the bank to the river. We then entered the little loop to see them better.

After we lost them from view we reversed out and at that point the two males crossed the road.

I did not see any yellow ribbons at the sighting or maybe I just missed them with all the excitement about the great sighting.

"The measure of life is not its duration but its donation." - Peter Marshall

Have been travelling the S100 very often (once even had an accident here when a car driven by a Danish guy run into mine). Here in June 2007 I saw lions several times. Beautiful sightings and pictures. But it will take to long to tell the whole story here. If you are interested to know more about just read my Kruger story starting at: June 13th, Fifth day, Eyeball to eyeball with . . . , Wednesday.
Just to give you one idea:

After having an ACL op on my knee I find it very hard to sleep at night and in doing so I watch TV to pass the time. Last night I was watching nat geo wild when a program came on at midnight called "Lion army". So I thought awesome love lions hope this show is interesting... AND IT WAS!

They started by saying that is was filmed in the Kruger National Park in South Africa AWESOME STUFF! Kruger's on TV

I have been watching the super pride in the delta that is 22 strong on Nat. and thought that it was the only pride in Africa that is that big because conditions in the area have to be basically "perfect" for a group to be that big but when i heard that the pride in Kruger is 26 strong i was shocked.

I'm not to sure as to when the show was done and was wondering if anyone knows if this pride is still a mega pride. If you have witnessed this group please tell us your experience as im sure 26 lions must be something to see "along with some photo's.

Massimo wrote:The lions stay in the Singita area? to be honest i have never heard of that area in the Kruger and maybe someone that does can give us a brief idea as to where it is. They showed a map on tv and it looked like it was close to Olifants area but i could be wrong

Singita is located near N'wanetsi dam, at the 'end' of the S100 one could say.

Not posting much here anymore, but the photo's you can follow here There is plenty there.

Feel free to use any of these additional letters to correct the spelling of words found in the above post: a-e-t-n-d-i-o-s-m-l-u-y-h-c

The Singinta area is very close to the area that the old Sweni pride dominated in the mid 80's, they were about 36 lions strong at their peak.The Sweni wilderness trail camp of today is roughly in the middle of the old Sweni prides territory.

I saw this program too.The Singita area is near the Nwanetsi picnic site (where the Nwanetsi private camp was) and is now a private concession where you pay big bucks to stay.

The pride was 28 strong. If any of you can recall a book called "Night Stalk" by Bruce Aiken who did lion research in the Sweni Area which is close by there was a pride of 33 lions. there in the early 1980's.

Gav Smith wrote:The old Sweni pride consisted of 39 lions in total, 2 males controlled this pride, Brutus and caesar, there is an old book called Nightstalk by Bruce Aitken and the whole book has to do with this pride, if u interested.

That is quite correct, (couldn't remember in my earlier post if it was in fact 39 but thanks for confirming).

A very interesting book, describing how Bruce and his assistant followed the Sweni pride for about 8 months. Following them mainly at night, he gives a very detailed account of life with the pride, from eventually being accepted 'as part of the pride' and also including the amount of kills he witnessed. Great book indeed!!